Underage Pornography Including Child Grooming Cases Have Increased During MCO

By Karissa Lund  •  20 May 2021 in News

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According to NST, Bukit Aman Criminal Investigation Department director Comm Datuk Huzir Mohamed said a total of 45 cases of underage pornography were reported during the MCO period from 18 March 2020 to 29 April 2021.

This shows an increase of 27 cases compared to 18 cases before the implementation of the MCO from 18 Feb 2019 to 17 March 2020.

He noted that it also involved child grooming without physical contact, namely using words or showing obscene sexual acts either in audio and visual form to children, which increased by 24 cases compared to 53 cases before the MCO.

“The widespread use of social media is believed to be a contributing factor to these cases,” he said.

Meanwhile, Comm Huzir said a total of 12,330 criminal cases against women, children and sexual crimes were reported during the implementation of the same period of MCO, down by five per cent, compared to 13,023 cases before the enforcement of the MCO.

Apart from that, he said domestic violence cases showed an increase of nine per cent compared to before MCO (6,003 cases).

“The main causes that contribute to the increase in domestic violence cases are quarrel (between husband and wife) due to financial problems, drug abuse problems and stress (believed to be due to loss of income),” he said.

Back in 2018, Malaysia had the highest number of IP addresses uploading and downloading photographs and visuals of child pornography.